At 09.00 a.m. today, Wednesday, 12 October 2005, with the prayer the
Hour of Terce, the Fifteenth General Congregation began, for the
Auditio Auditorium I, the First Audition of the Auditors and for the
continuation of the interventions by the Synod Fathers in the Hall
on the Synodal theme The Eucharist: source and summit of the life
and mission of the Church.

In the parish churches, the particularly apt place (on the
priesthood) for the Most Holy is the main altar, which hosts the
tabernacle. In this case, the main altar with its retablo (panel) is
truly the throne of Christ the King and attracts the eyes of all
those in the church to it. The presence of the Most Holy in the main
area of the church offers the faithful the occasion to adore God
even outside of the sacrifice of the Mass (for example during the
intervals between the Divine Offices). In fact, they come to the
church to pray, not to converse. Before Communion, it is the
priest’s duty to invite the faithful to the individual confession of
their sins. The best place for confession is the confessional,
located in the church and built with a fixed grill between the
confessor and the penitent. Whenever it is possible, priests must
favor the conditions so that the faithful may have access to the
Sacrament of Penance: if, in fact, the men live and die in sin, any
pastoral effort is useless. Reserving a time for confession every
day would be opportune, during pre-established times, in particular
before Mass. If we truly wish to renew the spiritual life of the
people, we are allowed to leave the confessional only after the last
penitent has received forgiveness. To the priests and lay persons
who generally participate at the table of the Lord every day,
individual confession, more or less, once a month should be advised.
For all the others, Confession is necessary at least every time they
wish to receive Communion.
In general, we must eliminate the abuse of accessing Communion
without the Sacrament of Penance. In the past, there was the habit,
during Mass, to go to Communion in a procession, but with the
passing of time, this practice was rightly denied for pastoral
reasons. As we know, in church the people have a communitarian
attitude: all respond to the priest’s words, all, sitting, listen to
the readings of the Holy Scriptures, all stand for the Gospel, all
kneel for the consecration (which is painful to us!), all stand to
participate in the procession to Communion - among these even the
Pharisee and the publican, the penitent and the non-penitent. The
individual faithful are afraid of abstaining from this procession,
because in this way they expose themselves publically as unworthy.
This is why this abuse came about so soon. What should be done? We
should renew the use of going to Communion individually to preserve
the freedom of conscience. The Mass is a common action, however
Communion should remain an individual one.

I would like to refer, in my intervention, to number 25 of the
Instrumentum laboris: the relationship between the Eucharist and the
faithful.
In the Ivory Coast, we can see with marvel that the lay faithful
participate in large numbers to the Sunday Eucharistic celebrations,
to such a point that even the large religious buildings no longer
suffice. This participation is even greater during the liturgical
feast days. We should also underline that even during the week, in
many parishes, the number of faithful who come to Mass is constantly
increasing.
But unfortunately, this massive participation in the Eucharist is
often reduced to its external aspects. Not everybody understands the
true sense that is born from the faith in Jesus, the Son of God.
Among the many causes for this state of affairs, I would like to
mention the miscomprehension of the Word of God. Does not faith
emerge from listening to the Word? Does it not grow when in contact
with the same “Word that is spirit and life” (Jn 6:63)?
It is no secret to anybody that for many years, the majority of
Catholic faithful could not access the Word of God except through
the preaching of pastoral agents. This lead, inexorably, many of the
faithful to a notorious ignorance of Holy Scripture. Does not Saint
Jerome say “to ignore the Scriptures is to ignore Christ”?
To believe in Jesus is to receive the Word and accept putting it
into practice. In fact, listening and meditating on the Word of God
allows, in a certain sense, the knowledge of the person of Christ,
to assimilate Him and to love Him to the point of aspiring the
receiving of His Body as a deer aspires for fresh water.
How then can we make the Word of God better known? We should be
given the right to cite the biblical apostolate that is not
well-known in many parishes. This to give the faithful the habit of
regular attendance, and assiduous in the Bible. To achieve the
creation in the soul of our faithful the hunger for the knowledge of
the Word of God is urgent for us.
In reading, in meditating the Word of God and in committing oneself
to following it, the look of the faithful will be refined and Jesus
will appear as the true bread descended from heaven, which he
absolutely needs.
The table of the Word and the table of the Eucharist, being
intimately tied, I would hope for deeper access into that mystery of
faith that is the Eucharist, the theme of the next Synod of Bishops
could be about the Word of God.

Even though much was said so far of the doctrinal aspect of the
Eucharist by the Venerable Fathers of this Synod I believe there is
little that we could add to what has already been clearly said in
the documents “Eucharistia de Ecclesia”, “Redemptoris Sacramentum”
and “Mane Nobiscum” in that respect. It is more important for us
here to look into the pastoral aspects of the matter and see how we
could promote this devotion so that we could make the Eucharistic
Lord alive in the hearts and minds of our faithful people as they
live their daily lives.
Together with this teaching we have to promote a visible
demonstration of our faith in the Eucharistic Lord. And this has to
be done more in deed than in word. Reference was already made here
to many abuses and aberrations in the celebration of the Eucharist
and gross lack of reverence to the Most Blessed Sacrament. Naturally,
these abuses on the part of the Ministers of the Eucharist are bound
to undermine the faith of the people and affect primarily our young
generation. Particular reference was made to Secularism and
Relativism. It is unfortunate that these are creeping in even to
Asia.
While respecting common liturgical norms we need to make a deep
study of the cultural patterns of the various worshipping people and
have them integrated to our liturgy. The cultural patterns of people
differ from continent to continent and often from country to
country. Therefore liturgists in these respective areas will have to
make a study of these patterns and have the forms of highest
adoration integrated to the adoration of the Eucharist.
The document does not bring out a very important meaning of the
Eucharist that could bring rich pastoral rewards. And that is
conversion. The Eucharist is a conversion of the Christian community
and the individual Christian into the Body of Christ. This nexus
between the Eucharistic Body and the Mystical Body is brought out by
St. Paul in 1 Cor. 11 and 12. We have to insist that this
transformation is the purpose of the Eucharistic mystery.
Finally today we have the serious problem of Christian
Fundamentalism which affects our belief in the Eucharist. This Synod
has to address its mind to this danger. Else it would be like an
effort to plant a beautiful tree - our faith in the Eucharist
without when there is a dangerous virus attacking it.

At the heart of the Eucharistic Liturgy is a dynamism in which Jesus
is revealed to his disciples. From this sacred process, genuine
communion and commitment are deepened.
The dynamism is divided in three inter-related movements a) the
Descending Movement of the Liturgy of the Word; b) the Ascending
Movement of the Eucharistic Prayer; c) the Descending Movement of
the Eucharistic Peace and Communion.
The first Movement is analogous to the dynamics of the Gospel of
John where he affirmed that the Divine Word became flesh and pitched
his tent in our midst (1: 14). Here Jesus descends in a similar way
into the Sacred Liturgy through the Holy Scripture, the Celebrant
and the Assembly just like he did during his public life.
In the Second Movement Jesus ascends with the celebrant and the
assembly from where they were to where he is, that is, to the
consecrated bread and wine now transformed into his Body and Blood.
Here both celebrant and assembly contemplate him as really present
in their midst in a more intense way.
In the Third Movement Jesus descends once more to where the
celebrant and the assembly are. He now brings them eucharistic peace
and reveals to them their mission as committed disciples.

The ZCBC had its Annual Plenary Assembly in April 2005 on the theme
"The Lord Jesus is present on our Journey of Life at the tables of
the Word and the Eucharist”. This was done in response of the Year
of the Eucharist and the previous call by SECAM to celebrate in 2005
the Year of the Bible in Africa.
The Instrumentum Laboris in no. 46 reminds us about it saying "The
Liturgy of the Word together with the Liturgy of the Eucharist
constitute a single, inseparable act of worship". Nos. 54 to 56 will
deal with it again in a practical way.
Our Liturgies of the Eucharist are well attended and constitute a
real feast and celebration with an active participation from the
faithful expressed in joy, song and a dignified dance.
Let me bring here to you the main challenges our faithful are facing,
not of a theological but of a pastoral nature:
1. The first challenge concerns the availability or accessibility of
the Eucharist to many of our Catholics.
The shortage of priests and the scattering of our faithful in our
vast rural areas make that the priests be available to them for the
Eucharist once a month, two months or even longer.
This challenges the centrality of the Eucharist in the lives of our
Catholics.
Could our rural Christian Communities that rely mostly in the
celebration of the Word be called Eucharistic Communities? This is
an interesting question that could be discussed in our groups.
2. The second challenge concerns the Eucharist and Marriage.
Precisely the ZCBC published a second Pastoral Letter on the
Eucharist this year under this heading exhorting the faithful to
appreciate the greatness of the Eucharist and its deep relationship
with the dignity of the sacrament of Marriage and regularize their
situation. Many Catholics who used to receive the Eucharist in their
youth no longer do so in their adult lives because of irregular
marriages.
3. The Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance pose the third
challenge. Our people understand the relationship of the Eucharist
and the Sacrament of Penance and go often to receive this sacrament.
Penance is viewed as an act of washing one's hands before a meal, a
tradition among our people, the Eucharist being that meal. New
trends among the youth seem not to appreciate confession as the
elders do and here comes a challenge to priest and pastoral workers.
4. For many of our Catholics the Eucharist is above all a meal
deriving mainly from the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, and not so
much a sacrifice that embraces the whole Paschal Mystery. An
in-depth catechesis on the Eucharist as a sacrifice should be
imparted to our people who would be able to understand it well in
the light of their traditional beliefs.
5. The Eucharist and its social dimension among our people.
Our people need still to make in-roads on it, seeing the Eucharist
as source and a demand posed to them to share with others their
riches or possessions in a spirit of solidarity and as an expression
of their communion with Christ and his Church, a real commitment to
buibl a more just and fraternal society.
How to make more relevant the Eucharist to the sick, physically and
mentally handicapped, marginalised groups, refugees and immigrants
is another challenge that goes with it.
"The Church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist builds the Church"
here it is the greatest challenge to us all.

Many Synod Fathers have spoken of the difficulties experienced by
the Church throughout the world. Some of these are caused by our own
mistakes.
The Second Vatican Council brought great blessings and substantial
gains, for example, continuing missionary expansion and the new
movements and communities. But it was also followed by confusion,
some decline, especially in the West, and pockets of collapse. Good
intentions are not enough.
Two areas of decline in Oceania are the number of priestly vocations
in Australia and New Zealand (but not everywhere in Oceania) and the
confusion evident in the proliferation of Communion services.
My recommendations to the Synod on how to deal with these “shadows”
presuppose the maintenance in the Latin Church of the ancient
tradition and life-giving discipline of mandatory celibacy for the
diocesan clergy as well as the religious orders. To loosen this
tradition now would be a serious error, which would provoke
confusion in the mission areas and would not strengthen spiritual
vitality in the First World. It would be a departure from the
practice of the Lord Himself, bring significant practical
disadvantages to the work of the Church, e.g. financial, and weaken
the sign value of the priesthood; it would weaken, too, the witness
to loving sacrifice, and to the reality of the Last Things, and the
rewards of Heaven.
We should remember the situation of the Church 500 years ago just
before the Reformation, a small weak community separated from the
East. The enormous expansion since then and the purification of
Church leadership (imperfect but substantial) were achieved
primarily under grace, through the lives of celibate sisters,
brothers and priests. The recent sexual scandals have not
invalidated these gains.
I request the Synod to draw up a further list of suggestions and
criteria to regulate the celebration of Communion services,
especially on Sundays.
“Liturgies awaiting a priest” is a better title than “priest-less
liturgies.” There is no such thing as “lay-led liturgy,” because lay
people can only lead devotional prayers and para-liturgies. The
suggestion of Archbishop Paolo of Haiti that we use the title
“special ministers of Holy Communion” is much better than “ministers
of the Eucharist.”
I support the suggestion that a list of topics for thematic homilies
be drawn up for the liturgical year. One such topic should be the
nature of the Eucharist and the essential role of the ministerial
priest.
Communion services or liturgies of the Word should not be
substituted for Mass, when priests are available. Such unnecessary
substitutions are often not motivated by a hunger for the Bread of
Life, but by ignorance and confusion or even by hostility to the
ministerial priesthood and the sacraments.
To what extent are regular celebrations of Communion services,
Sunday after Sunday, a genuine development or distortion, a
Protestantization, which risks confusing even regular Church-goers?

Reference is made to number 65 of the Instrumentum Laboris “From
Celebration to Adoration”: reflections and consequences that the
Eucharist worship/worship had on the Eucharistic life of the Church
before and after the liturgical Reform of the Second Vatican Council.
The expression “Eucharistic worship” includes acts of worship
offered to the Eucharist outside of Mass, like the Eucharistic
adoration, the forty hours and the Corpus Domini feast, with which
one professes his own faith in Jesus’ divinity, God and man, in the
consecrated bread and wine that remains after the communion and the
adoration.
At first, the Eucharist was not always received during the
Eucharistic ceremony. It was conserved after the celebration in
order to give it as Viaticum to sick people; others received
Eucharist and brought it to their homes. It regarded, in these cases,
communion out of the Mass but maintaining an intimate bond with it.
Afterwards, the Eucharistic worship developed separating itself from
the Eucharistic celebration and had its own identity and autonomy.
People did not participate to the Mass, but were more interested in
the elevation, the highest possible, of the Host in the secretarium
and to stay in silent adoration. Thus occurred the passage from
celebration to adoration.
The Council of Trent, that had asserted against the Reformers that
in the consecrated Host, that remained after Mass, remained the Body
of the Lord that was to be proposed for adoration by the people,
gave a major separation to the Eucharistic celebration.
The principal attention was the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
and therefore adoration, while the Eucharistic celebration was
considered on a secondary level. This is how an absolutization of an
aspect occurred, which though it is essential to the ministry of
Christ as is His real presence and the Eucharistic adoration, it
does not reap the totality that is expressed in the Eucharistic
celebration. This, in fact, has the community who listens to the
Word of God, the conversion of the bread and wine into the Body and
Blood of Christ, the offering to the Father of the sacrifice of the
Cross on the altar and the communion to the Body of Jesus who makes
the Church one and holy.
This vague was illuminated by the Constitution “Sacrosanctum
Concilium” of the Second Vatican Council and by other pontifical
documents like the document “Eucaristiae Sacramentum” et
“Inestimabile donum”. Here it is affirmed that the celebration of
the Eucharist is the center of the entire Christian life and that in
the Church all derives, as from a source, from the celebrations of
the Eucharist and all leads to and must lead to it, as its last aim.
The assertions of these documents do not want to create doubts on
the validity of the Eucharistic worship which was, for many, one of
the principal resources of their sanctification. The truth is that
the liturgical Reform intends to place Eucharistic worship in its
own perspective: recognize the central place that it must have in
the Church’s life as a necessary mean of sanctification. Its place
is inside the Eucharistic celebration and not parallel to Mass. The
Eucharistic worship is not autonomous and independent from the Mass,
it does not substitute it, but it is relative to it.
Far be it from canceling the validity of the Eucharistic worship,
the liturgical Reform strongly recommends the worship of the
Eucharistic adoration for the spiritual fruits that it has.

1. Liturgical signs and the risk of abuses: an enormous threat
The liturgy is achieved through the language of signs (IL 58) even
if it is an action of God (IL 42). There is no more eloquent sign
than that of the breaking of bread - body of Christ and to divide it
in order to communicate in the reality. When in the liturgy this act
is well achieved - naturally after an adequate catechesis - it
speaks directly to whoever participates in it in an present and
actualizing manner.
Several abuses are noted in the Eucharistic celebration, especially
in reference to the missing or insufficient reverence towards
Eucharist. But I pose a question: When from the participants in the
Eucharist the possibility of the Mystery penetrating their lives in
order to break the yoke of the old self is taken away, does not
every failing in the language of the signs not perhaps constitute an
abuse? This is still more evident when the chalice is not given to
drink from it?
Having had the experience of the Neocatechumenal journey - from the
beginning till the end - I can bear witness that the celebration
made paying attention to the Word and to signs, especially the
breaking of Bread and the participation in the Chalice, works
miracles. I saw many persons reconciled with their history, the
re-unification of weddings in crisis, many couples opening up to
life in order to build up families with numerous children, many
young people that found the orientation in life according to the
Gospel and many vocations for the consecrated life and for
priesthood. The common denomination for all this is the
participation in the mystery of the Word and of the Sacrament
celebrated with abundance of signs.
2. Some proposals
1. I propose that the possibility of using the full richness of the
signs is assured, so that the liturgy can achieve its own character
and its own formative and constitutive value for Christian life.
2. It is necessary to pay more attention to the formative catechesis
in which signs are not only didactically explained but in which the
faithful or the catechumenals are introduced to the mystery through
mystagogy.
3. We must be careful that no abuses are committed both in the sense
of the lack of reverence and of negligence, which are frequently
mentioned, and also in the reductive sense, i.e. in the sense that
exactly that which expresses the dynamic of the Eucharist is left
out or ignored. I note in particular:
- It is good when the character and the value of the sacrifice in
Eucharist is emphasized, but it is bad - and is an abuse, in the
sense of failing - when it is underestimated and is not made present
by the aspect of the Banquet that communicates and puts in communion,
i.e. creates the Body.
- It is good to underline the aspect of the real presence, but is
bad - and it is an abuse of omission - when because of reverence,
sometimes maybe not well understood - signs are not used as for
example the matter of bread that should have the aspect of food (ut
cibus appareat IGMR 321), and when it is not allowed to drink from
the chalice although this is possible, (and it is recommended by
dilucidiorem signi sacramentalis formam - IGMR 14, 281).
- It is good to value the consecration moment, but it is bad - and
is also an abuse - when it is lacking a good expression of the
doxology that sometimes in celebrations passes even quietly
unobserved; like this also the response of the assembly, i.e.
acclamation Amen.
- And similarly it is bad - and is also an abuse - when that very
essential part of the Eucharist which is the liturgy of the Word is
not well prepared and lived.
- In addition, it is surely bad, from the pastoral and ecclesial
point of view, when the role of the assembly is not valued,
especially in the Sunday Eucharist, but it is only the priest who
“says the Mass” - as if he is doing a service to a group or even to
some person according to prepaid private intentions.

The three dimensions of Christian faith: martyria, liturgia and
diakonia, are the fulcrum of being Christians and Christian identity.
On the other hand, martyria and diakonia find their essence, force
and perspective in the liturgy.
Otherwise, how could one think about the many martyrs in Albania
that have been discriminated against, arrested, persecuted and
killed for being witnesses of Christian faith, without the strength
of a deep faith in Jesus Christ and in His presence in the Eucharist?
Still today, in the port of Vlora, there is a statue of Mary, at the
Order of the Servants of Mary, where the priest used to hide the
hosts for the sisters after having clandestinely celebrated Mass, at
the risk of life.
The etymology of the Greek word ‘Eucharist’ means ‘giving thanks’,
that is to say, in a theological sense, that this is the highest
giving of thanks possible to the Creator, Savior, Pastor and Father,
for all He has done and continues doing for the world, creation, and
above all, for men and their salvation. And this happens thanks to
Our Lord Jesus Christ who is on our side..
In the Eucharist, a vital and mutual relationship between God and
men is realized. In this relationship and encounter, God truly
manifests Himself as the Emanuel and Good Shepherd that always
remains among us and with us.
Jesus, the Son of God, did a lot for us men. He came among us,
suffered for us, died on the Cross and was risen. But what would we
have gained if, after His ascension into heaven, He had left us
alone? What would have happened to His promise: “I am with you every
day...”?
His real presence in the Eucharist is the best proof of the
realization of His promises and His love.
In the celebration of the Eucharist, the encounter of God with His
people and Christian unity is are expressed in a particular way: in
the universal Church with the Pope, in the particular Church with
the local Bishop and in the parish with the parish priest, this
unity becomes visible.

My intervention refers to chapter II of the third part of the
“Instrumentum laboris”: “Ite missa est”. At the beginning of the
Third Millennium where our society is very agitated, family life is
easily lost. Now, the family is the crib of all evangelization, in
particular Christian education and formation. I would like to
express two wishes: a) support for the Christian family; b) the
formation of priests.
A) Since Vatican Council II, the Church continues to make a lot of
efforts in the liturgical celebration. The liturgy of the Word has
found its place among the devotional prayers of all types: rosary,
litanies and different traditional songs. Of course, the celebration
is more rapid, but the effective participation of the faithful is
very reduced to give way to the three readings and the Sunday homily.
However, it has been taught in “Familiaris Consortio” that the
family is a small church, the crib itself of the whole community.
Should we not urge greater liturgical studies, to better maintain
the forms of devotional prayer of each family; emphasize the
exchanges and sharing of the reading of the day; recited prayers and
traditional songs.
It is true that the liturgy consists greatly in listening, but to
express oneself witnesses that we have already sufficiently
understood it.
B) Another suggestion I would like to give is to encourage the
family itself to realize the prayer for vocations. The young people
that we welcome in the seminaries are youths who are past the age of
puberty. Practically, their human education has been finished.
We discover a decrease in priestly vocations since the small
seminaries receive less financial aide from Rome. The families,
however, cannot take on the long formation of all their children.
The seminaries must quickly progress with the spiritual and
doctrinal formation.
I would also like to exhort each large family to offer a child for
the service of God and the good of the Church. It is good to
encourage young couples to ask the Lord that at least one of their
children receive His calling.
There is a mission here, an offering, which we all must make, “our
Eucharist”.

Number 53 of the “Instrumentum laboris” is dedicated in a
praiseworthy way to the “probatus Ecclesiae mos” - as called by
canon 954 - of the offering made by the faithful for the celebration
of Holy Mass according to their particular intentions.
I am sad to note that the practice of having the Holy Mass
celebrated in favor of the living or the dead, is in a direct way
through the personal offering given to the priest as well as in the
of form testaments or founding dispositions, is rapidly being eroded
in many ecclesial areas.
In reality, where this happens, one loses a positive occasion to
make the sense of spiritual and material participation in the
Eucharist grow, as well as the dynamism of charity that derives from
this. The Code and the various recent documents by the Magisterium
of the Church re-propose, in fact, with clarity the great values
that the gesture of offering can and must express: it is a form of
personal participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice recognized in
its great spiritual relevance; it is the privation of one’s own
goods, in a spirit of sacrifice and solidarity, that the glory of
God may be given and that certain ends of the Church may be promoted;
it is a rather concrete and useful way to join in the support of
priests and the realization of the apostolic activities of the
Church; it can become a means of support for the missionaries and
for the priests in the neediest Dioceses, in a horizon of lived
Catholicity. For all these reasons, we are not surprised that the
Decree by the Congregation for the Clergy dated February 1991 “Mos
iugiter” recalls the duty to instruct the faithful on this matter
through a specific catechesis, recognizing its “elevated theological
significance”. As happens for many other aspects of the spiritual
tradition, if nobody speaks about it and shows its reasons and worth
this practice is also destined to consume itself.
Undoubtedly, this old practice is exposed to risks and ambiguities,
and therefore the vigilance of the Shepherds and the rigorous
correctness by the priests with respect to those offering are
absolutely necessary. The best antidote against these risks, in any
case, is the correct formation of the conscience, which underlines
the authentically spiritual value of this form of Eucharistic
participation, totally outside of any contractual or commercial
logic, and thus founds the motivated, caring and rigorous practice.
As well underlined in the “Instrumentum laboris”, piety towards the
dead is traditionally also connected to this “probatus mos Ecclesiae”:
this is a profile that also is worth being cultivated among our
faithful, who by now, especially in the Western world, a context in
which there is the tendency to make the consideration of the mystery
of death disappear, to deal with the body of the dead person as a
burden, to reduce to a generic memory the spiritual relationship
with him, which Christian faith instead places in the framework and
in the dynamism of the communio sanctorum and in the perspective of
the resurrection of the flesh. The celebration of the Holy Masses
for the dead therefore takes on great educational value also from
this point of view.

My reflection pertains to the following numbers in the “Instrumentum
laboris”: 39 - The Real Presence; 37 - Sacrifice, Memorial and Meal;
77 - Mary, Woman of the Eucharist.
There is concern in the Church for the progressive distancing of the
People of God from the Eucharist. The secularization of today’s
world is the “darnel” to be contrasted with the “seed” of the Good
News of the First Proclamation.
- To enliven the parochial and missionary communities with simple
and clear catechesis on the sacrificial concept of the Eucharist and
the real presence. To help them have the eyes of the good thief that
sees in Jesus, the Lord. He goes beyond the wounds, the derision,
the rejection: he sees Him as God, as King even if hanging on the
Cross. To believe is to go beyond, it means to trust in God. As for
observing the liturgical discipline, if one is in love with the
Eucharist, respect will be spontaneous. It is amazement found once
again.
- The homily must be taken care of in a greater way, which is often
neglected, and courses of Ars dicendi or sacred eloquence must be
recuperated.
The sacrificial aspect, memoria passionis, is the heart of the
Paschal Mystery. With Christ, head of the mystic body that is the
Church, the Church itself also dies and rises, as in a wider sense
does all of humanity and the cosmos. The passion of humanity, with
its injustices, hunger and violence, unites itself with the Passion
of Jesus and completes it. There is a deep relationship between the
mystery of the Eucharist and Matthew 25:35-40, For I was hungry... I
was thirsty... I was a stranger... lacking clothes... sick... in
prison and you came to see me... Lord when did we see you...? in so
far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did it to me”.
To recognize Him in the Eucharist and not in those who suffer is
like dividing Christ from Himself. An authentic Eucharistic life
opens the eyes and the heart to recognize Jesus in those
“crucified”ones of our times. Saint Paul of the Cross used to see
the name of Jesus written on the foreheads of the poor.
What is Mary’s role in the Eucharistic liturgy? The mustard-seed
that is her fiat, grew and will sprout in and beyond Bethlehem, even
on Calvary. Jesus gives her new motherhood: “Woman, here is your son”.
Now, even the most hardened sinners have a mother in common with God,
and even Judas, if he wanted, would have the sweetest of mothers. A
new world is born in the cenacle under the Cross. In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was made Flesh, the Word was made
Eucharist.
Then we should ask: Is Mary, the “Eucharistic Woman” who
contemplates and adores pausing at the threshold of the Eucharist or
with her maternity, is she, in an admirable and mysterious way, part
of it?
In the Eucharist Jesus is present in totality with the mystery of
His incarnation, passion, death and resurrection: Can we then invoke
Mary also with the title of Mother of the Eucharist?

The Eucharist is the sacrament of the presence of Christ, dead and
risen.
It is the celebration in memorial of the redeeming sacrifice of
Christ, unique and definitive.
In a Theravada Buddhist country, man can only save himself and rely
on his own merits that will lead through progressive births to
Nirvana, which is the liberation of life and fusion in the absolute.
Jesus Christ declares Himself to be the way, the truth and the life.
For those who welcome Him in faith, this means to let oneself love
and be loved in return. God, who is love, sent His Son, who so loved
men that he gave His life to reconcile them with the Father. This
love of the Father, which is revealed by the face of Jesus, calls
all those that recognize Him to see Him in the faces of all men,
especially in the little ones: “in so far as you do this to one of
the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me”.

What is said in the second part chapter II and in the third part
chapter I of the “Instrumentum Laboris” about the priests as
ministers of the Eucharist and of the sanctity of their life is true.
However, it seems to me that in part IV of this document the theme
of Eucharistic spirituality of priests and seminarists has to be
dealt with. Do this. Christ the Lord does not say only announce,
narrate, but he says do. And this word is decisive.
The priesthood is a sacrament of action. It is the sacrament of the
saving and redeeming act of Christ, an act that was made available
to the apostles at the Cenacle: Do this in memory of me. The
Eucharist not only bears witness to Who loved us till the end; it
educates to such a love. The humanity of today searches for
witnesses of the transfiguration.
The bishop reminds the deacon who receives the priestly ordination:
imitate what you will celebrate, conform your life to the mystery of
the Cross of Christ the Lord. The priest must imitate the Eucharist
that he celebrates; imitating it he becomes the witness of the
Eucharistic Christ. St. Thomas of Aquinas wrote: “The Eucharist is
like the achievement of spiritual life, and the aim of all
sacraments”. These words were the basis for Vatican Council II,
which asserted that “in the most Holy Eucharist is enclosed the
whole spiritual good of the Church, that is to say Christ himself,
our Easter”.
1. Eucharistic spirituality of Bishops and of priests
The Eucharist is the fullness of spiritual life, because in it is
concentrated all that Christ did and wants to do for men and with
men. Therefore, the Eucharist has to form our spiritual life. The
spirituality of the priest must be a Eucharistic spirituality, for
the priest is the minister of the Eucharist. Each Christian, but in
a special way the priest, must be the witness of the Eucharist, that
is to say has to be:
- Holocaust offered to others
- Bread for others
- Be always with the others
2. Eucharistic spirituality of the seminarians
Regarding the Eucharistic education in the seminary, the Holy Father
John Paul II recalled to seminarists three things:
In the seminarian’s life and overall in priesthood, there should
always be room for prayer.
The consciousness that on the world’s paths the Risen Himself is met,
who equips with the potential of the Holy Spirit should be deepened.
Then the dedication to God and to men will not be a burden, but a
trusting and joyful participation in the eternal priesthood of
Christ.
The profound Eucharistic spirituality of future priests must deepen
in their hearts the true missionary spirit. Ite, misio est. I know
well that the Holy Father Benedict XVI always counts upon the many
missionary vocations from Poland, the country of the Servant of God,
John Paul II.

Eucharistic people - IL no. 76
Eucharist and Peace - IL no. 83, 84
I refer to numbers 76, 83, and 84 of the IL in my intervention.
Among the names of the many Saints and Blesseds of all the centuries
mentioned in the IL, there is also the name of a young lay person,
Ivan Merz. And evidently this was for a reason. Seeing his relevance,
I would like to give some information about him. Born in Banja Luka,
in Bosnia-Herzegovina, towards the end of the 19th Century, he lived
for only 32 years and died in Zagreb in 1928. He was a professor and
teacher of Christian young persons and laity.
Looking at his multicultural origins, his intellectual education,
his formation and his spiritual activities, he unites in one person
a series of European peoples and States: with Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Croatia, also the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Austria, France
and Italy.
An authentic Christian European, with a high level of education
received in Vienna and in Paris, he was able to harmonize science
and faith. He became an untiring apostle of the living faith in the
love of Christ, the Church and the Successor of Peter, above also to
Catholic Action, instituted by Pope Pius XI.
Forty years before Vatican Council II, he testified with his own
example and promoted many aspects of the Council doctrine on liturgy
and on the laity.
On the occasion of his beatification, celebrated two years ago, the
Holy Father John Paul II said: “At the school of the liturgy, [...]
Ivan Merz grew to the fullness of Christian maturity and became one
of the principal promotors of the liturgical renewal in his country.
Taking part in Mass and drawing nourishment from the Body of Christ
and the Word of God, he drew the inspiration to become an apostle of
young people. It was not by chance that he chose as his motto
‘Sacrifice – Eucharist – Apostolate’”..
Pope John Paul II underlined that: “The name of Ivan Merz has
signified in the pasta programme of life and of activity for an
entire generation of young Catholics. Today too it must do the same!”.
In our days, the figure of the Blessed Ivan Merz is a true discovery,
and authentic breath of fresh air, not only for the Church in Europe.
In the native country of the Blessed Ivan Merz, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Catholics were subjected to repeated humiliations and persecutions,
due to their faithfulness to Christ, especially Christ present in
the Eucharist, and also to the Successor of Peter, for centuries and
up until recent times,. Even during the last wars, during the ‘90's,
more than half of the Catholics were thrown out of the Country and
the majority of these could never return. In my diocese alone, more
than two thirds of the faithful, peaceful persons and promoters of
reconciliation, were exterminated without reason, and this with the
support of international representatives.
Almost one fifth of my parishioners (7) were assassinated (and add
to these one religious man and one religious woman), because they
revealed reconciliation and love for the enemy, preaching this and
testifying it unceasingly, because they celebrated Mass regularly
with their faithful, despite the destroyed churches,.
These authentic testimonies of faithfulness to Christ, to the Church,
to the lived Gospel and to their priestly service sealed, with their
own blood, their unshakeable faith in the real presence of Christ in
the Eucharist.
We want to believe that these real sacrifices of our priests and
religious persons, like the sacrifice of many of our lay faithful, a
true “crucified Church” of Europe’s present, united to the unique
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, may be fruitful for a longed for
reconciliation, for a just peace and for the salvation of many
persons in my country and other places.

I speak as the Bishop of the Church of Anatolia, which saw the first
great expansion of the message of Jesus and where Christians are now
only a few thousand.
In the city of Tarsus, home of the Apostle Paul, the only Christians
are the three sisters that welcome the pilgrims who, in order to
celebrate the Eucharist in the only Church-museum remaining, must
have a permit. The same is true for the Church-museum of Saint Peter
in Antioch.
In this city, John Chrysostome was born, whose 16th centennial of
his death in exile will be celebrated in the year 2007. Chrysostome
himself, with his homilies, reminds us that the Eucharist was and is
the privileged place of the parousia. His memory, together with the
more one of Bishops such as Clement Von Galen and Oscar Romero, is a
living testimony of the bond between the memorial of the sacrifice
of Jesus and those who, in it, have found the reasons and the
strength for a proclamation made with intelligence, courage and
without reticence.
The Eucharist, as the memorial of the offering of Christ, imposes
upon us to take our proclamation from this center and imposes also
that our moral teaching be founded on this as the expression of the
sequela of Christ.
The Eucharist can also recall us to the which is specific of
Christian morals that are born of a vision of faith and in which
ethical action is lived as a religious response. From this point of
view it is important to recall the example of the Saints, who
discovered that “even more”, which the total donation of Christ in
the Eucharist sustains and calls for.

The Year of the Eucharist is a launching ramp for a long term
Eucharistic movement that allows the evangelizing of culture
beginning with the family, the domestic church. Today’s
anthropological crisis is manifested in the break up of family and
social relationships. Only the Eucharist, the source of Trinitarian
communion, can respond to this cultural and social crisis. The
assiduous practice of Sunday Mass in the family is the proven and
always contemporary way to evangelize culture and society. The
preparation of the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec in
2008 promotes this, in the light of the teachings by John Paul II,
who left us in heritage this conviction.

[00301-02.03] [IN227] [Original text: French]

The summaries of two other Synod Fathers, which arrived after the
closing of the Bulletin’s edition, will be published in the next
Bulletin number 20.

The Instrumentum Laboris underlines the hope the Church has in its
young people (IL 74). Those young of today who, living in globalized
cultures characterized by an unending change of perspectives, and in
a society destroyed by so much economic insecurity and by the
glorification of violence, only with difficulty find points of
support to articulate an outline for their lives, that could give
meaning, direction and purpose to their young dreams. Today more
than yesterday, we need to feed the hunger and thirst that youth
experiences in the quest for a mystical experience of union with God.
This is, without a doubt, a strength that attracts young people of
the world today. From this centre, they find the most intimate and
unifying movement of their lives, even though they vacillate between
desperation and their hopes.
Yet this centre is not merely an experience of personal tranquility
and pacification. Rather, drinking from this fountain in the
encounter with Christ, they discover also the strength to see in the
world their crucified brothers and sisters, those who suffer through
the oppression of wars, violence and hunger. Those who have no
future. From this source and summit they come out, inflamed with a
new passion and with the strength grace gives to participate in the
mission of the Church in society and in the world. Young people will
be, without a doubt, that portion of the Church that is most
sensitive in sensing the hopes in ruins that millions of children
and other young people have in the world of today.
The Eucharist, centre towards which all their actions tend, is also
the summit from which all their actions flow. In that way, the
Eucharist is not disconnected from the social and political concerns
that the disciple of Jesus lives in the midst of other men and women
in the world, especially amongst the poor.

Dearest Holy Father and all our good shepherds and the people of God
in this august hall, I am so awed at being in this synod - a simple
housewife and an ordinary lay woman. This verifies that the Church I
believe in and love with all my heart embraces all her children. Oh,
how with God everything is gift. His gift of faith at Baptism,
re-presented daily in the Eucharist - the Eucharist is, in the words
of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, "love that never ends."
I come from a country - the Philippines - which holds the biggest
number of Catholics in Asia, I believe third in the world with that
distinction. And I still recall what the great Pope John Paul II
whom we all love told me in 1996. He said that God has given the
Filipinos two great gifts: the richness of our faith and the
closeness of our families. While today this is still true, thank God,
we cannot close our eyes to the sad fact that our faith is being
eroded and separation in our families is a cause for concern.
Last month, two high school students in one of our parochial schools
committed suicide. Some of their classmates said it might be because
these boys felt no one loved them. The parents of one are both
overseas contract workers, while the other came from a broken home.
The struggle of these boys could also be reflective of the struggle
of their parents. Perhaps they did not know Jesus enough to find
their happiness and meaning in him. Many young people, including the
older ones, attend Sunday Mass because it has been a family
tradition, and so, a requirement. There is not that "I desire with
great desire" the Eucharist, that "hungering for the Bread of God".
This is because a lot of people of our times, the young especially,
are no longer excited about Christ, no longer awed by the Eucharist.
The sense of wonder at this "love that never ends" has not taken
root in their minds, nor moved their hearts. Their center of gravity
seems tilted in favor of the attractions this world offers. And so
many lives waste away detached from the values of the Eucharist.
The Church - mater et magistra - does not seem able to grasp them.
Maybe they do not listen to her as a teacher because they have not
experienced her as a mother.
The parishes wh~re "the Church lives her life" have to move - and
move fast - so that these become centers of charity - love that
welcomes, forgives and saves. Centers that are models for families
where people, especially the young, feel they belong, are loved and
are connected with one another. Centers where the liturgy is alive,
a real celebration of faith that leads us to a person-to-person
meeting with Jesus - God with us. And we need catechesis - ongoing
catechesis on different levels - that will give us access to Christ
as presented in the Scriptures who shows us the face of Abba, Father,
and makes alive the transforming power of the Spirit in our lives.
Holy Father, and all our shepherds, give us Jesus, only Jesus,
always Jesus, so that filled with the wonder of his love that never
ends, manifested in the Eucharist, we will possess "the joy and the
daring" to proclaim with our lives: We believe, we hope, we love.

The Instrumentum Laboris calls the Eucharist "A Sacrament of Intense
Spirituality" (75). Indeed it is, as I can witness from my own happy
experience and that of others whom I have met. But we must do more
to make it so for all Sunday-going Catholics in India and the world.
One area of effort is the Table of the Word, which the IL (n.46)
reminds us is inseparably linked with the Table of the Eucharist.
Another area of effort is that of contemplation in adoration (IL, n.66).
1. In my experience as a lector in the parish, I am often told by
people that they find many readings, and especially Old Testament
texts, difficult to understand. This is because the majority of our
people are not "Scripture-literate." I appeal to this Synod to find
ways to implement the plea made 40 years ago by Vatican II's Dei
Verbum: that the faithful be helped to develop an "increased
devotion to the word of God," so as to experience "a new impulse of
spiritual life" (D V, 26). This must be done both inside and outside
the Eucharistic celebration. In it, the role of the celebrant is a
key one: he can do much more to help the laity understand and love
God's word. He must do this both in the way he "proclaims" (not just
reads) the Gospel, and in the biblical content he takes the trouble
to put into his homilies every Sunday. Many homilies I have heard do
not make the Scriptures come alive adequately, or are not at all
connected with the readings. Hence, one goes away from the Mass
having totally forgotten the word of God that was proclaimed in that
liturgy (just like in Jesus' parable, "the seed that fell along the
path was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it" [Luke
8:5]).
On the other hand, there are priests who take much trouble to
provide rich nourishment from the Table of the Word, and I sincerely
thank such priests! Remembering the Eucharistic context in which
they are proclaiming the word of God, they try to bring the
congregation to faith in the presence of the Lord, speaking through
the Readings. May every celebrant do likewise! Also, on behalf of
the Catholic Biblical Federation, I take this opportunity to humbly
ask His Holiness to convene a future Synod of Bishops on the very
important and urgent topic of The Word of God in the Life of the
Church.
2. Contemplation in Adoration: I greatly liked our beloved Pope John
Paul II's comment: "I would like to rekindle Eucharistic amazement..."(
Eucharistia de Ecclesia, n.6). He also said: "The presence of Jesus
in the tabernacle must be a kind of magnetic pole attracting...
souls enamored of him, ready to wait patiently to hear his voice and
... to sense the beating of his heart" (Mane Nobiscum Domine, n.18).
Let us take these words seriously! My appeal to all priests is to
teach the faithful (also by their own example) to spend several
minutes after Communion in complete silence, so as to listen
lovingly to the beating of the heart of Jesus, in the tabernacle or
within ourselves. Such deep worship of the Lord will set us free to
give ourselves totally to the Father. It will also necessarily lead
to a generous giving of self in service to our neighbor, so that our
fruitful contemplation will flow into apostolic action, and be "the
criterion by which the authenticity of our Eucharistic celebrations
is judged" (I. L., 3).
To conclude, I am convinced that renewed ministry from the Table of
the Word will lead to a renewed spirit of contemplation in adoration.
May this Synod create among us all a new commitment to make of the
Eucharist, which is both "the table of the Word and the table of the
Bread" (MND, 12), a sacrament of intense spirituality for all! Thank
you.

My intervention leads to the eschatological dimension of the
Eucharist, according to numbers. 68-69 of the “Instrumentum laboris”.
I will present this theme following two anaphoras: of Saint Mark the
Evangelist and Saint James, Brother of the Lord, in use in the
Syro-Antiochian Maronite Church.
If waiting for the second coming of the Lord is usually presented in
the Eucharistic liturgies of the Orient and of the West as a future
event that Church prepares itself for with prayer, vigils and hope,
this is presented in the three Eucharistic prayers aforementioned as
an event from the past, which the Eucharist community remembers.
This is how the celebrant addresses Christ in the anaphora of Saint
Mark in proclaiming: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, we remember all your
saving economy for us: your conception, your birth, your baptism...,
and your majestic coming when you will judge all men, giving
retribution to each one according to his works...”. The Orthodox
theologian, Jean Zizioulas (today Bishop of Pergame), gives this
particular vision of the anamnesis, which can also be found in the
Liturgy of saint John Chrysostome, the expression of “future memory”.
I propose more studies on this notion of “future memory” in a time
when the eschatological dimension of faith is undergoing a sharp
crisis; where the Christian sense of History is blurred in favor of
a Christianity with a social predominance where ambitions don’t go
beyond the limits of a more just and solidary human society. In
celebrating the Eucharist in the “future memory”, Christians will
meditate upon the mystery of the economy of salvation realized by
Christ, not in a fragmentary and selective way, but as a unique,
multi-faceted, soteriological reality of Incarnation and parousia.
This reality, so well deployed in the events of the liturgical year,
finds, however, in the Paschal Mystery celebrated in the Eucharist,
its foundation and its culminating summit. Pilgrims of God,
Christians will find in this “future memory” the necessary force and
light, coming from above, to witness to the liberating values of the
Gospel, often against the current, in communion with the hosts of
saints, martyrs and confessors and with “all those who were pleasing
to the Lord since Adam until today” (offertory prayer in the
Maronite Missal).

I am a simple and poor nun, but a witness of what God does through
the Eucharist today.
In front of the Eucharist I started to understand the profound pain
of many young people in the roads, to hear their cries of their
solitude. Jesus sent me to those young people who have the sadness
of drugs in their heart, the hunger and thirst for the sense of
their life which they have not found.
What therapeutic method or medicine could I offer them? There is no
pill that can give them the joy to live and peace in the heart!
I proposed to them what lifted me and gave me back hope so many
times: the Mercy of God and the Eucharistic prayer. The Eucharist
cannot be understood by one’s brain, but it is felt in the heart. If
you trustfully kneel before Him, you will feel that His humanity
present in the consecrated Host reawakens God’s image in you that
returns to shine.
It is the “Eucharistic miracle” that I have been contemplating for
so many years. The Eucharist creates not only a personal but also a
dynamism of the People. At the beginning some young people started
to get up in the night for personal adoration; then every Saturday
night, for them the night to party, they decided to kneel, in all
the fifty communities, from two to three a. m., to pray for those
young people lost in the false proposals of the world.
Afterwards they started the continuous Eucharistic adoration. It was
a revolution in the history of the Community: young people came from
everywhere, the communities have increased, missions were instituted
in Latin America and then the vocations of families and of
consecrated people to God in this work of his. What the Holy Father
called at Cologne the revolution of Love exploded.
I wanted to tell you with simplicity, this piece of our history to
give thanks to Jesus who in the Eucharist, left in our hands the
treasure, the medicine, the most extraordinary light to come out of
the darkness of evil. The young people with whom I have lived for
the past twenty two years have been for me, a religious person, the
living witness that the Eucharist is really the living presence of
the Risen, and that also our own dead life when entering in His own
is resurrected.
Really if someone is in Christ, he is a new creature!
Thank you for having listened to me.

In most of these new charisms, which are the Movements and the new
Communities, a renewed love for Christ has been experienced in the
Eucharist. It is through this that they allow the pain of the men
and women of our time who are hungry for God touch them. This hungry
multitude are the “Thomases” of our times who resist believing in
Christ without seeing Him, without hearing Him, and without touching
His Body. In the Eucharist and in Christ’s disciples , nourished by
His Word and by His Flesh, Jesus allows Himself to be seen, heard
and touched by the “Thomases”.
One of the most important fruits of the Eucharist which we must
cultivate is the
“Parresia”. “Parresia” is a Greek word which in the New Testament
takes on the meaning of audacity in the proclamation of Christ.
In the period of Carnival, in Brazil, when youngsters are exposed to
serious dangers, the Catholic Shalom Community promotes
evangelization through witnessing, music and art. During this event,
we have a moment of adoration before the Most Holy Sacrament. It was
impressive to see what many consider impossible: one hundred
thousand young people in a deep silence of adoration before the real
presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This was a prelude to Cologne.
Even more impressive were the fruits of this and of other actions of
this type: many conversions, a large number of confessions,
commitment in the Church with a return to participation in Mass, an
awakening of priestly vocations and the love and service to the poor.
We have discovered that the best reply to the challenge of
secularization is: to present Christ with audacity!
Inflamed by the Holy Spirit, which arouses new forms of ecclesial
experience in the Movements and New Communities, the lay faithful,
in communion with their Pastors, multiply the forms and means to
attract, with the “Parresia”, the “Thomases” of this new millennium
who, without even knowing it, yearn to know Christ in the Eucharist.

[00244-02.05] [AU006] [Original text: Italian]

The interventions of the Auditors in the Hall will continue in the
Sixteenth General Congregation this afternoon, after the Relatio
post disceptationem.

The briefing of the linguistic groups of Saturday 15 October 2005
will take place at mid-day.

● SECOND PRESS CONFERENCE

Accredited journalists are informed that on Thursday 13 October
2005, at 12:45 p.m., in the John Paul II Conference Hall of the Holy
See Press Office, the Second Press Conference will be held on the
works of the XI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (Relatio
post disceptationem).

The following will intervene:

● H.Em Card. Francis Arinze
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of
the Sacraments
President-Delegate
● H.Em. Card. Telesphore Placidus Toppo
Archbishop of Ranchi (India)
President-Delegate
● H.Exc. Msg. John Patrick Foley
Archbishop of Neapolis of Proconsolari
President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications
President of the Information Commission
● H.Exc. Msg. Sofron Stefan Mudry, O.S.B.M.
Bishop Emeritus of Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine)
Vice-President of the Information Commission
● H.Exc. Msg. Luciano Pedro Mendes de Almeida, S.I.
Archbishop of Mariana (Brazil)
Member of the Information Commission